Coupling: Flushed (2000)

Synopsis
by Brian J. Dillard

In a London bar, two attractive thirtysomething couples attempt to break up. Handsome everyman Steve Taylor (Jack Davenport) wants to dump his longtime girlfriend, lovely bisexual Jane Christie (Gina Bellman). As usual, though, she refuses to take the hint, using her considerable physical assets to distract Steve from the task at hand. Meanwhile, big-time womanizer Patrick Maitland (Ben Miles) tries to end his affair with beautiful blonde Susan Walker (Sarah Alexander), but she turns the tables on him. Steve and Jane retire to the ladies' room for a quickie, but as Steve is nipping out to get a condom, he runs into Susan and can't resist asking her out -- despite the fact that Jane's still waiting for him in the stall. Eventually, Steve and Susan do embark on a first date, but it's complicated by the arrival of not only their exes, but also a pair of their friends: Jeff Murdoch (Richard Coyle), Steve's sexually obsessed but socially inept best mate, and Sally Harper (Kate Isitt), Susan's operatically vain gal pal. As the sextet's tangled relationships are slowly revealed, Steve and Susan's date turns into an impromptu dinner party. Originally broadcast May 12, 2000, on BBC2, Flushed marked season one, episode one of the hit Britcom. When NBC unsuccessfully attempted to launch an American version of Coupling in 2003, this episode was adapted for the pilot.